There was a recent NYT article about a young entrepreneur who could be described as 'hypomanic' - "grandiosity, an elevated and expansive mood, racing thoughts and little need for sleep" - and how these very qualities which could signal a borderline mental disorder are what could be best for an entrepreneur.
Sure, entrepreneurs are often called 'crazy' - they take risks, are overly enthusiastic about their ideas which don't seem practical, and have enormous confidence in their abilities to pull off something that looks iffy at best. Steve Jobs famously exhorted would be entrepreneurs to 'stay foolish'. So it should be nothing new - but this article focuses on what may be an extreme version of it. There is some of the next Zuckerberg glamor/clamor with investors hunting for brainy (and arrogant?) college dropouts with grand ideas for the next big thing a la Facebook. It doesn't seem to apply to entrepreneurs who go after ideas like the next generation fuel cells or a new heart valve or a better way to offer customer service - the stuff that may need deeper education or experience along with fire and faith - it is more about the brilliant college dropout with a tech game-changer. The entrepreneur profiled fits the bill of brilliance, obsessiveness, exhibiting single-mindedness from early childhood etc. Of course, he doesn't have any interest in a social life either. And while all entrepreneurs have to give up much of their 'ordinary life' to work on their startups, giving up all of it doesn't seem to be a smart move. Focus is necessary, tunnel vision is not, and entrepreneurs need people skills too, though the examples mentioned in the article don't seem to display much of the latter. Steve Jobs is cited as an example of another hypomanic entrepreneur and described as 'a despot and a control freak' - probably not the dream boss for most people.
There's the suggestion that highly successful entrepreneurs are not only extremely passionate and driven, but that the top priority in their lives is their venture, not the people, not even their families (many of them are young and single when they start). You can read the article here, but in my view, the world also needs, and offers hope for, entrepreneurs who are not going to be the next Zuckerberg or Jobs.
Channeling the inner entrepreneur who views life as a startup. Musings about people, their spirit, the startup ethos and the entrepreneurial attitude, with an emphasis on education and social ventures. The 'how-to'? Not so much. But definitely the why, the what and the whatever.
Staying true to your mission - continued
I while ago I'd written about Zappo's change to stay true to their mission of customer service (you can read it here). While that is certainly true for the big stuff, like business models, for an early stage entrepreneur it is also important to keep the focus on the day to day happenings that define the company. Unfortunately it is harder to do when you're being the Swiss army knife of your venture and switching from strategist to tactician constantly.
For example, we believe that customer focus is necessary in all aspects of business and the team supposedly has that down. But recently I was reviewing an overview document for a customer pilot - a document that I'd read and given feedback on at least a couple of times before - and since it was ready to go to the customer, I decided to look at it from the viewpoint of one. That's when I realized that while the main content was fine, the header had an internal focus, not a customer one. Instead of being titled something like 'Hot Stuff Program Pilot' where the customer could relate to and get excited by the 'hot stuff', the header was 'Pilot for XYZ Organizations' referring to the type of orgs that would do the pilot. Presumably it was not obvious as three different people, other than me, had reviewed it with the express intent of maximizing customer impact, and not one had caught the fact that all the header was doing was notifying the customer that this document was for them. Until I looked at it the way the customer would, I didn't see that we should draw attention to the program instead so we could have the customer at 'hello' (alright, the header). Maybe time pressures had something to do with it - but startups cannot use that as an excuse unfortunately. True, a larger company would have this kind of stuff covered under rules and guidelines developed by experienced staff who have time for building processes, but startups should, and can, get similar results by remembering the focus that they believe in.
Small things have a big impact, and when it comes to customers/users, the entrepreneur probably has to do some micro-managing (including of one's self!) until customer focus becomes second nature to everyone. The good news about having a small slip-up like this is that it makes for an excellent cautionary tale that everyone can relate to and makes it so much easier to do the right thing. That's another thing for the founder/entrepreneur to do: collect and tell stories!
For example, we believe that customer focus is necessary in all aspects of business and the team supposedly has that down. But recently I was reviewing an overview document for a customer pilot - a document that I'd read and given feedback on at least a couple of times before - and since it was ready to go to the customer, I decided to look at it from the viewpoint of one. That's when I realized that while the main content was fine, the header had an internal focus, not a customer one. Instead of being titled something like 'Hot Stuff Program Pilot' where the customer could relate to and get excited by the 'hot stuff', the header was 'Pilot for XYZ Organizations' referring to the type of orgs that would do the pilot. Presumably it was not obvious as three different people, other than me, had reviewed it with the express intent of maximizing customer impact, and not one had caught the fact that all the header was doing was notifying the customer that this document was for them. Until I looked at it the way the customer would, I didn't see that we should draw attention to the program instead so we could have the customer at 'hello' (alright, the header). Maybe time pressures had something to do with it - but startups cannot use that as an excuse unfortunately. True, a larger company would have this kind of stuff covered under rules and guidelines developed by experienced staff who have time for building processes, but startups should, and can, get similar results by remembering the focus that they believe in.
Small things have a big impact, and when it comes to customers/users, the entrepreneur probably has to do some micro-managing (including of one's self!) until customer focus becomes second nature to everyone. The good news about having a small slip-up like this is that it makes for an excellent cautionary tale that everyone can relate to and makes it so much easier to do the right thing. That's another thing for the founder/entrepreneur to do: collect and tell stories!
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